SLPs Share Their Favorite Games for Speech Therapy (Organized by Season!)
If you’ve been an SLP for more than about five minutes, you probably know this truth:
There are a lot of games out there.
Walk down the toy aisle or browse online and suddenly you’re wondering if you need twenty new therapy games.
But when I recently asked SLPs in my community a simple question —
“What’s your favorite game to use in speech therapy?”
— something interesting happened.
Despite the huge number of games available, many SLPs reported reaching for the same tried-and-true favorites again and again.
These are the games that:
keep kids engaged
work for mixed groups
adapt easily for articulation and language
and somehow survive years of therapy sessions
Below is a short (ish) list of SLP favorites that came directly from poll results and email replies.
Just to be clear — this is not an exhaustive list of therapy games. There are so many wonderful games out there!
Instead, think of this as a crowd-sourced list of the games SLPs say they reach for again and again.
To make it even more fun, I organized them by season.
Winter Favorites in Speech
These games tend to show up in therapy rooms when the weather gets cold and cozy.
• Pengaloo
• Don’t Rock the Boat
• Don’t Break the Ice
• Yeti in My Spaghetti
No surprise here — SLPs apparently love penguins and yetis in the winter months!
Spring Favorites in Speech
These games bring a little springtime silliness to therapy sessions.
• Funny Bunny
• Jumping Jack
Both of these are great for building anticipation, turn-taking, and language expansion.
Summer Favorites in Speech
These games feel bright, silly, and perfect for keeping kids engaged during the end-of-year energy boost.
• Shark Bite
• Let’s Go Fishin’
• Lucky Ducks
• Bar B Q Party
• Honey Bee Tree
• Pop Rocket
• Crocodile Dentist
These are fantastic for quick articulation turns and fast-paced language practice.
Fall Favorites in Speech
Fall therapy sessions bring out some adorable seasonal favorites.
• Sneaky Snacky Squirrel
• Beware the Bear
• Chompin’ Charlie
• Gobble Monster
These games are especially popular with preschool and early elementary students.
All-Year Therapy Favorites in Speech
And then there are the games that seem to live in our therapy closets all year long.
• Troll in a Bowl games on Boom Learning
• Greedy Granny
• Shoot the Poop
• UNO / card games
• Burpin’ Bobby
• Balloon and balloon launchers
• Pop Up Pirate
• Critter Clinic
• Surprise boxes
• Pop the Pig
• Wind-up toys
• Matchbox cars
• Marble runs
• Headbandz
• Gooey Louie
• Jumpin’ Monkeys
• Rattlesnake Jake
• Ned’s Head
These are the workhorses of speech therapy — the games that SLPs say they return to over and over.
Final Thoughts
If this list shows anything, it’s that speech therapy doesn’t always require brand-new materials.
Many SLPs are doing amazing work using simple, familiar games and adapting them to target articulation, vocabulary, sentence building, WH questions, and more.
Sometimes the real magic isn’t the game itself. It’s how we use it.
And if you’re anything like me, you probably already have several of these sitting in your therapy closet right now.
